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Documents Detail CIA, MI6 Relationship With Qaddafi

This image provided by Human Rights Watch on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011 shows part of a secret document dated June 19, 2003 discovered by Human Rights Watch in Tripoli, Libya, detailing a meeting regarding a CIA visit to Libya's WMD programs. The CIA and other Western intelligence agencies worked closely with the ousted regime of Moammar Gadhafi, sharing tips and cooperating in handing over terror suspects for interrogation to a regime known to use torture, according to a trove of security documents discovered after the fall of Tripoli. The revelations provide new details on the West's efforts to turn Libya's mercurial leader from foe to ally and provide an embarrassing example of the U.S. administration's collaboration with authoritarian regimes in the war on terror. (AP Photo/Human Rights Watch)

A cache of papers found at the intelligence headquarters dating from the time it was run by Moussa Koussa, who later became foreign minister and defected in March, showed Libya was handed Islamist opposition members as part of the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” programme.

MI6 also provided extensive information to the Libyan authorities of opponents living in Britain.

The British intelligence services seem to have been more circumspect than their American colleagues, however. Often the files, which were found by Human Rights Watch and shown to The Sunday Telegraph, suggest they restricted themselves to confirming information already known to the Libyans.

It also shows one reason for the co-operation – MI6’s belief that Libyan Islamists were playing a central role in funding and supporting al-Qaeda, often via contacts in Iran.

MI6 and the CIA were instrument in the attempts by former Prime Minister Tony Blair to bring Col Gaddafi “in from the cold”, started at the time the alleged Lockerbie bombers were handed over for trial in The Hague.

In return for compensating victims of the Lockerbie bombing and other terrorist outrages, and surrendering its programme for weapons of mass destruction, diplomatic relations were resumed and sanctions dropped.

The documents give details of how much further subsequent co-operation went between Libya and the West. They confirm that Abdulhakim Belhadj, now leader of the Tripoli Military Council under the rebel government, was flown by the CIA to Libya for interrogation and imprisonment in 2004.

Documents with photographs and details of people wanted by the Libyan External Security office are seen in the abandoned office where Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief and foreign minister Moussa Koussa was based in Tripoli September 3, 2011. Documents found in the abandoned office of Gaddafi's intelligence chief indicate the U.S. and British spy agencies helped the fallen strongman persecute Libyan dissidents, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday. The documents were uncovered by the human rights activist group in Koussa's abandoned offices. REUTERS/Anis Mili

A list of telephone interceptions by the Libyan External Security office is seen at the abandoned office of Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief and foreign minister Moussa Koussa in Tripoli September 3, 2011. Documents found in the abandoned office of Gaddafi's intelligence chief indicate the U.S. and British spy agencies helped the fallen strongman persecute Libyan dissidents, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday. The documents were uncovered by the human rights activist group in Koussa's abandoned offices. REUTERS/Anis Mili

This image provided by Human Rights Watch on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, shows a secret document dated April 15, 2004 discovered by Human Rights Watch in Tripoli, Libya, detailing a request for Libya to take custody of a terrorist suspect known as "Shaykh Musa." The CIA and other Western intelligence agencies worked closely with the ousted regime of Moammar Gadhafi, sharing tips and cooperating in handing over terror suspects for interrogation to a regime known to use torture, according to a trove of security documents discovered after the fall of Tripoli. The revelations provide new details on the West's efforts to turn Libya's mercurial leader from foe to ally and provide an embarrassing example of the U.S. administration's collaboration with authoritarian regimes in the war on terror. (AP Photo/Human Rights Watch)